The two navigators stood over a recovering May and Bob for the second time, and let’s just say they were having some interesting thoughts.

“…If… if…! We leave them here and they ‘happen’ to die… then its really not our fault in the end… is it…?” Kim made a suggestion, only a suggestion.

“You think we’d be able to escape it…?” Brody looked down on the woman, one brow high above the other.

“I—… well—… we’d just have to figure that part out… and I know we can do it…!” Kim smiled like a mother proud of her child as she nodded.

“Stop talking…” The brute was not having it.

“Sorry…” She’d agree. “But if—” Partially.

“Silence.” The man would look at the woman and then at the golden cube, multiple times with widened eyes.

“Good point…” She’d scratch her head, wondering if she had begun a spiral. “So we… we really have to bring them there huh...?” She crumpled one of her fists, grinding her teeth behind a crooked smile.

“Unfortunately… or we’ll end up like you know who…I guess desperation really makes for poor choices… huh…?” The brute looked at himself, flexing his muscles and fingers.

“I guess so… but he did make a choice, it was his fault in the end, he could have fought the natural behavior, he didn’t… nothing we can do about it now, and there’s nothing we could have done about it then… plus… didn’t we agree ‘every man for himself’…” The woman shot Brody a look from the side.

“Yeah, you’re right… yeah… you’re right…” By the end of his words, the man was looking at the ground with no glimmer in his eyes and no chipper in his voice.

Their conversation did not surpass that point, in fact, they avoided even looking at each other for the remaining duration of their wait. The affected two would wake up a time later, and they were ready again, though there were going to be some changes.

Bob had been placed on the brute’s cold shoulder and May was on Kim’s stiff back. They’d carry them with ease, some would have even said, with too much ease, especially considering their tired past.

Those ideas were illusive still, even for Bob, especially with the blood loss he had suffered. He was in the same boat with the likes of August though, thus, even if he was bled dry, he wouldn’t die, because there wasn’t much left alive to kill.

He would still be in excruciating pain though, as the scenario they found themselves in was never accounted for. There was a possibility he could end the pain too, but he wasn’t that much like August, feeling pain was a part of being human, and he wouldn’t give that up.

As such, he’d be left in a state of permanent delirium, bobbing and weaving in slow, almost drunk arcs atop the giant’s shoulder.

They’d all ignore his plight as they continued their journey, all except one, the little girl. She wasn’t better by much, but she could see that he was worse.

“Aren’t you two going to help him…?” Even as her vision multiplied and her head spun, May found the words.

“How…?” Brody butchered a smile, as the girl couldn’t tell the difference.

“I don’t know… anything…? If all that blood is his… a transfusion or something…?” The girl did get her words out, but that’s as much as she was getting.

“Absolutely not…!” Kim was cold, but she seemed to get a tiny bit hotter then.

The girl, as disagreeable as she wanted to be, couldn’t quite muster the strength to argue her case, not with a pounding headache anyway. She would still ask her questions though.

“What were those… ‘things’… and what did they do to us…?” The perfect question from an amateur mind.

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“Florists… ‘concepts’ that embody flowers and the emotions they convey when psychic energy is invested into them. As for what they did to you, well that’s simple. They took advantage of what they specialize in, emotions, and then they used it to access your minds and consequently your bodies. Simple, no.” A perfect answer from an experienced woman.

“What… why…?” The girl’s question was valid, seeing as she was in a deep sleep for more than half the happenings.

“You heard Sonata’s complaint, did you not? ‘Living people,’ she emphasized on that part. Let me ask you a question. Do you think if all these ‘things’ could change this place like we can, that they’d use such roundabout tactics…? Of course not… they want y— us, to become us…” The woman felt her heartbeat rise a little as she spoke, perhaps a little too much.

“Why—… no… how…?” The girl’s headache seemed to worsen.

“In this place as yo— we… exist corporeally, we cannot die, because that fulfilment of the concept does not exist out here, so by bringing you to a point of death, in which you cannot die, they steal your body when your consciousness slips in and out of you… simple…” Even Kim was starting to get a headache.

“What do you mean ‘fulfilment’ does the concept of death… not exist here…?” The small girl was on the brink of unconsciousness as her headache worsened.

“It does, but not in the way you’d understand it from— our world. Over there people die, and can die, it is something that is able to occur, and will inevitably occur, here, that is not the case... Death… death is a place… over here at least, though it does not exist on its own, that would be crude and dangerous… though, it is still ever present, if you go in any direction long enough… you’ll end up there… whether you like it or not…” The woman’s step’s would slow.

“So… the monster’s, they can die too…?”

The woman would stumble at May’s words.

“Well… The idea that anything here has a naturalistic end that it cannot manipulate or control in some way used—… is foreign, as I said before. The energies… maybe I should have said concepts… no… that wouldn’t—anyway, any type of energy will perpetuate the cycle of its own creation, making itself stronger and prolonging its life indefinitely, no matter how small its influence, or time frame practiced. This place exists ‘out of time’… that is why we must never ‘turn back’… as when you do, that idea is loaded with feelings of going back to a better ‘time’ or condition.” The woman knew fair bit, and thankfully so.

The implications of what she had said were interesting still, especially with the ambiguity of the instructions they had been given.

I do suppose it made all the sense though, seeing as Kim had done a monstrous amount of talking to simply come to the conclusion and explanation of what was said. And so, I do believe what was said fulfilled its intended purpose, especially seeing as there wasn’t enough time to explain all that then. This fact would be highlighted, because of course there were going to be questions, and May had them.

“Wait… are you saying—” The girl did not get a chance to finish, but that was only because the woman was experienced.

“Yes… I’m saying exactly what you’re thinking… you can go back in time if at some point you go somewhere in here without properly grasping the impact of your thoughts and actions. If you ‘go back’ at any point, in any way, you will go back in time. Well… when you leave this place you’ll go back in time… as for the ramifications of that… you are not a concept… and thus you will be erased as the… the… as... The reality let’s say, corrects itself…” Kim was a scholar on the Abstract, it seemed.

“So that’s why….” The girl was starting to understand. “So is there anything else we should know…?” More amazing questions, from a faint mind nonetheless.

“Yeah… there is… ha… some we have already broken… rules, I mean... if you want to call them that… ‘Never pick the flowers, they aren’t beautiful. They do not help you. Never get caught in the flow. The clock ticks in reverse, but we count forward… and never look at the sky…’ they were taught that, pretty simple huh…? Those give you the best possibility of survival, they also help you to return your own time period… But I guess that’s why we weren’t told most of them…” The woman was having an epiphany as she spoke, and she grit her teeth with a smile as she realized. “You dirty bastard… haha… wow… you are a genius… hahahahaha….!”

“What do you mean…?” May wanted a piece of the proverbial pie that Kim was gorging on.

“The longer we stay here not following those rules… the more time will pass in— the other world, and that gives your brother enough time to deal with ‘him’… how convenient…?” The woman’s smile seemed uncontrollable, she even twitched, scratching her chest.

“What does that mean for us…?”

“For you… that means you’ll return to an unfamiliar world, but it might be safer… for us… no… for you…” She looked over at Brody.

“I know… maybe we can bargain with it, reason with them…?” Brody reciprocated a response.

“We’re here!” The woman smiled, yet her eyes glossed with tears. “Because they refused to bargain! You think they’re gonna change their minds now! Now! Don’t be ridiculous…!”

“That’s not true—” The brute got but a slice of a chance.

“Technically…! No…! But the point still stands… ‘she’…. She’d never bargain with us… ever!” Her tears finally rolled, she looked away from them all, unable to wipe her own tears.

“You… I—… I’ll at least try…” Brody had faith, and that kind was truly blind.

“And so… you’ll die first!” The woman looked at him, even as she cried.

“Maybe… maybe I will!” The brute was strong in his resolve, planted in ground he thought to be firm, thought.